Undefeated American mixed martial artist and ONE Welterweight Champion Ben Askren has headlined two ONE Championship cards in Manila. And as it seems, he has fallen in love with the Philippines.
Ben “Funky” Askren (15-0-1) was the marquee star during ONE Championship’s 26th show Valor of Champions. The former NCAA Division 1 standout faced Brazilian Jiujitsu practitioner Luis Santos that night but an accidental eye poke ended the bout two minutes into the bout resulting to a no contest. It was a Manila debut to forget for Askren as the Filipino crowed absolutely hated the outcome.
During the pre-fight of that bout, it was reported by Dojo Drifter correspondent Mike Miguel that Askren loved making the media rounds here in Manila. From the hotel receptionists to the personal drivers, everyone had nothing but praise about the humble and down-to-earth nature of the Arizona-native.
Askren, who has been in the fight game for seven years, vowed to put on a show in his Manila return at ONE Global Rivals. “I owe the Filipino fans. The last time I was in Manila obviously the bout didn’t have the outcome anyone wanted and my opponent was a lot less than courageous in faking his eye injury,” the 31 year old American admitted. “The Filipino fans were unfairly robbed of a good fight. They lost the main event that night.”
ONE Championship’s welterweight kingpin was able to dominate the first two rounds of his title defense against Russian upstart Nikolay Aleksakhin but he had to dig deep in the latter rounds to take the unanimous decision win. “I dictated the first two and half rounds. He wasn’t hitting hard that’s why my defense dropped more times than I probably should have,” he reflected. “That dude is freaking strong and I could not get his arm down. I had a hard issue getting his arm down.”
“I fought five rounds early in my career and fighting five rounds sucks. The last few I finished in the early rounds and that’s so nice. Fighting five rounds is a shit job.”
Even with the outcome, Askren was just happy to finally fight after a series of unfortunate events last year. “When I walked in the building today and got the chance to warm-up, it was like a relief because, in my mind, it felt like I had not fought in 20 months. I had the no contest last year and he did not make weight last November. It was ridiculous,” he shared. “I did feel like a certain kind of excitement when I got in the building.”
“Positive-negative, it felt good to get back on the cage but it wasn’t my ideal performance.”
However, in another twist, Askren confirmed after the night that his opponent missed weight that resulted to the bout being a five-round, non-title match. “As you guys probably heard my opponent missed weight. As standard procedure, the championship fight became a non-title fight and I get 20% of his fight purse as a punishment for that,” Askren said.
The ONE World Welterweight Champion turned the negative of what had just happened into a positive. The 31 year old disclosed that the penalty incurred by Aleksakhin will be donated to Children’s Hour, a fund raising and grant-giving organization in the Philippines that is focused on the welfare of marginalized Filipino Children throughout the country.
“I feel like the money I earned was enough so I’m giving all of it which is like a thousand dollars to Children’s Hour, a great charity that ONE’s been helping out,” a humbled Askren said. “I think it’s important to give back to the community. I know that they will make good use of it.”
Currently in the prime of his career, Askren is primed to be one of the top flight welterweights in the world. Moreover, his continuous acts of charity and compassion outside of the cage makes him one of the best ambassadors of the sport.
